Sunday in Serres

On Saturday night, we hosted a small gathering of Americans to welcome back Aaron Taylor, who lived in our apartment a few years ago. He was back in Thessaloniki to touch base with some professors regarding his Master’s thesis.

On Sunday, he rented a car to drive up to the Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner in Serres (I’ve posted photos from there twice before), and he asked if we wanted to tag along. Of course, we said yes.

We headed up early Sunday afternoon and, since the monastery’s gates were closed for midday, we walked around the city of Serres a little bit. Serres has a population of about 70,000 and is probably the fifth or sixth biggest city in Greece.

The top photo is of the city’s Metropolitan cathedral.

The middle photo is what we believe must have been a former Turkish bathhouse. Now it holds some sort of archaeological museum, which was closed.

In true Greek fashion, we decided we had better go for a coffee, so we went to Galea Lifestyle and Beverages. Now I mean the beverages you can get anywhere, but where can you acquire a whole lifestyle? The name sold us. Aaron (on left in bottom photo) reported that he felt he had gotten more than just a coffee – he felt like a new man.

With that, we were ready to head up the monastery for Vespers…